The nastier language in "Game of Thrones" is so creatively varied that no single odoriferous word tends to recur with any regularity. The only one that gets repeatedly snarled and whispered in the first few episodes of the show's second season is neither a put-down nor slang for genitalia. It's "power." And the show's conspirators, both noble and sinister, argue about whether it is attained through force or friendship, cunning or calm, and whether it's desirable or destructive.

The series returns Sunday night on HBO. There are noticeable differences between the two seasons. Emmy winner Peter Dinklage's name now appears first in the credits - testament both to his admirable work as the flinty, funny, smart and devious Tyrion Lannister and the storytellers' control over the epic narrative written by George R.R. Martin; Sean Bean, previously top billed as the noble Ned Stark, departed after his character was beheaded near the end of Season 1.

Stark's death didn't surprise Martin's readers but shook a TV viewing audience that envisioned Bean as the face of the show for years to come. Some part of the allure of Martin's series is that he wields his power in a way that feels startlingly cruel yet real.

Where the first season established a feeling of mystery, Season 2 instead charts the chaos created when men and women (and boys) seek power. Martin has said his stories are not meant as allegory for our times. Instead they capture aspects of power and control that feel unattached to time and place. They speak as poorly for us in The Now as they do our predecessors from just about any other era.

A bit of background, which is no small task … Season 2 opens where the first season left off. A multifaceted war has begun as various factions in the kingdom of Westeros vie for the Iron Throne, which was vacated when a drunken mishap involving King Robert Baratheon and a boar turned deadly. Baratheon's "son" Joffrey assumed the throne even though he wasn't a natural heir; Robert's wife, Cersei, birthed the child with her brother Jaime Lannister. Knowledge of this illegitimate heir resulted in Stark's being betrayed and beheaded. So Season 2 has the cruel Joffrey on the throne, bethrothed to one of Stark's daughters. One of Stark's sons, Robb, leads a rebellion against the Lannisters. He is declared king of the North. Robert's two brothers, charismatic Renley and sullen Stannis, also stake a claim. No surprise, given all this, that Martin titled his second book "A Clash of Kings." To further describe the action would require more paper than I'm allotted as well as revealing plot details best discovered through the books and/or the show. Perhaps the most fitting assessment is one repurposed from Spalding Gray: "Everything is contingent, and there is also chaos."

Of course "GOT" must also serve as entertainment, so it remains committed to the artful (if fetishistic) portrayal of sex and violence, which are parsed out just conservatively enough to keep the series from pulp, thus keeping more of the focus on the rich storytelling.

Martin doesn't give the impression of having made up the world of Westeros as he went along. The unwritten story that predates the events of "A Game of Thrones" (the book, the first of five so far in Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series) could inform a series of novels itself. It can make the TV version somewhat difficult to follow for those unfamiliar with the books. More than a dozen important new characters find their way into Season 2. The depth of the cast and the back story might - along with general disinterest in swordplay on TV - have explained why "GOT" struggled to find viewers early in its inaugural season.

But by the time Stark's head rolled, "Game of Thrones" had become a hit for HBO. Certainly, some go to "GOT" for its titillating diversions, but there are cheap thrills to be found elsewhere on cable. What the show did well, and continues to do well early in Season 2, is fearlessly manage a grand narrative about the corrosive nature of power built on contingent actions - some well intentioned, others horridly evil - and the inevitable chaos.